Why Facebook and Twitter Are Not Replacing Blogging

chellepaul Exactly - every network or platform can work with each other to optimize the experience, as opposed to reducing it. And I think that's what a lot of people miss when they say "Blogging is dead" or any other combination of "Platform X is dead."

mikepedersen It depends what your goals are, Mike.

Traffic is important, for sure, but are conversations? Yes, if you're looking to build a community-led blog. Not so much if it's mainly a news feed for company news, promotions, etc.

Additionally, it could just be a video blog that acts like an educational tool for a company's product or service. It may not need the interaction of comments, but it's still a hugely important blog for the customers of that company.

DannyBrown I'm referring to the small, online business owner in my response. Not big corporate. I've been online for 10 years, and have seen firsthand how many people cannot get traffic and wither away. To launch a niche site now, and get it ranked is very, very tough. I've done my own SEO and know this to be true. If someone wants to blog, and treat it like an online diary that would be different I guess.

mikepedersen Ditto, mate. We help small businesses every day get into blogging, as well as the bigger organizations.

A blog can actually be a lot more effective for a small business than advertising in the local paper, or using Google Ads to (hopefully) bring in traffic. Of course, it has as much to do with the business owner (or whoever's handling the blog) as it does with how you handle search engines.

I agree that it can be tough - but it's not impossible (and this is where the audit comes into play).

JessicaNunemaker One of the numbers that stood out for me, Jessica (and one I forgot to put in the post) was that 78% of folks are using social media to drive traffic to their blogs. So, in essence, 78% of people using Twitter more are doing so because of their blogs. ;-)

It's little tidbits like this that, as you mention, sees social media complement, not replace.

Cheers!

ben That's a great point, Ben. Funny how all the platforms and tools we read about as "Platform X Killer" never actually describe themselves as that? Because they probably genuinely don't see themselves as killing off anything, but complementing.

Agree on the future of Twitter - I can see it being an amazing real-time news engine heavily punctuated with people's opinions on the stories. Almost like citizen journalism on steroids. :)

sydcon_mktg We often speak with companies who want to use Facebook as their key online presence. When we ask why, the answer is usually, "Because it's the biggest." Thing is, being the biggest doesn't make you the best - just look at how the Flip cam has taken on the big boys like Panasonic and Sony when it comes to movie cameras.

Like you say, placing your bets on a third-party is a dangerous game. Have control of your own space and lose control from there.

DannyBrown sydcon_mktg This is an excellent anolgoy and what more needs to be said.
Duong Sheahan

JonathanElliot Ha, two very good points, Jonathan - well played. :)

Someone mentioned they could see Facebook Notes turn into a blogging platform. Possibly - but they'd need to improve that awful plain Jane interface first... ;-)

jennalanger I can't help but smile at the irony of a piece about blog replacement being on an actual blog as well, Jenna... ;-)

I'd love to see places like The Blog Herald, Technorati, Backtype and others converge into one big study on blogging, like you say. That'd be a report to see.

jeffespo Agreed, Jeff. And like you say, mate, the "death of" posts usually get more traction than "X is alive and kicking" posts. Plus ca change...

TimBaran It's funny, Tim, I wrote a post a long time back on comments suffering because of social network discussions. Turns out it was one of my most commented posts - gotta love irony. :)

It's another reason I'm kinda excited about the upcoming livefyre updates, where they'll be bringing proper social conversations into the comments (and vice versa). From what I can gather, it's not going to be just your standard RT's filling up the comments, but a proper discussion from Twitter and Facebook.

If they can pull that off, I think blogs and social networks will finally marry up the way they're set out to be. :)

DannyBrown TimBaran livefyre Wow, Danny, if that convergence happens in a truly meaningful and useful way, I may yet be a livefyre convert :-)

TimBaran livefyre I keep bugging jordan kretchmer and jennalanger for updates on the new features - I'm sure they're going to revoke my use soon! ;-)

DaliBurgado Garrett_Ira joey_strawn That's a great point, Dali. Yes, you can have newsletter sign-ups for email lists on Facebook Page tabs, but I wonder how long that'll last?

I just discovered that on my personal Facebook profile, all the optimization I had done on the tabs disappeared due to Facebook\s recent updates. Now I just have the standard Wall, Info, Photos, Boxes and Discussion - whoopee doo...

That's another reason a blog offers much more than Facebook or Twitter can (in their current set-ups). I don't have to worry about something disappearing unless I want it to. Big advantage.

And thanks for the compliment on the blog layout, I've had some great feedback on it. Ironically, it's just a placeholder while my redesign is completed in the development area. But due to the feedback, I was speaking with my designer over the weekend to see if we can incorporate some of this layout.

Fun times! :)

KenMueller Thanks, Ken, and agree 100%. It's like when people try and silo marketing, PR, advertising, sales, customer service, etc. Why do they have to be separate? Can't we look at how they all work together to offer the complete package?

The same with blogging and social networks - they're all essentially doing the same thing (sharing your thoughts and ideas and inviting discussion on them), so why try and segregate?

Hey ho...

Garrett_Ira Exactly. I was chatting with david siteman garland on his therisetothetop show last week, and one of the things we talked about was homebases and outposts.

We agreed that everything starts from the blog, and builds around it. Facebook and Twitter are great for snapshot discussions and sharing, but the real meat takes place here (how many tweets would your comment have needed?).

And that's a great point you make about a lot of folks not even blogging to begin with, but using networks. Like you say, non-use to start with doesn't equal replacement.

Cheers for some great thoughts, sir.

DannyBrown Garrett_Ira david siteman garland therisetothetop
DEFINITELY agree with this Danny. And of course....a blog might not be text. It might be videos. It might be a web show. It might be videos. But that home base is so critical.

DavidSitemanGarland Garrett_Ira Exactly, David (as your show makes the perfect example of). Until Facebook and Twitter offer that kind of functionality and choice, they're still just "add-ons" to a blog (albeit great ones).

joey_strawn Agree completely, Joey. If anything, combining all three (and others) into a true complementary multi-platform approach drives awareness and growth as opposed to scare people off or take them away.

I know my own blog has benefited by the friends and community around it that kindly share on their own networks. And as Garrett_Ira mentions in his comment, there are a ton of folks that don't blog, are on social networks, and are more than happy to be part of a blogging community from a sharing and commenting side.

To me, bringing them together is the way to go, not segregating and blaming one or the other for decreased use.

DannyBrown Garrett_Ira Amen.

Sushi The increase in third-party solutions that allow you to tweet longer than 140-characters are a good example of the "limitations" of Twitter.

Like you, I love the platform, but I don't always want to have to a whole bunch of tweets to say what I could say in a single blog post. Until that hurdle is overcome, I'll be right here. ;-)

TrafficColeman Bing and Google are including tweets now, mate, and depending on the privacy settings you've set up on Facebook, I think some of the updates from there are filtering through now.

But here's the thing. If I go to Google now and search my name, for example, it's the blog homepage and its About page that comes up first. I have control over how that reflects what I do, and how any meta description can be tailored to different searches.

With Twitter, sure, you can get my bio from there, but then it's just tweets. And depending who I'm talking to and what about at the time of your search, I might be giving you a false idea of who I am and what I do.

That's another reason I prefer my blog as my homebase and everything else to build from and around that. I think a lot of others do, too... ;-)